No Sweat: Punks Against Sweatshops.

By David Pratt.

The Punk scene is renowned for its strong political beliefs, with bands spouting messages of anti-capitalism, anarchism and working-class solidarity, but for many bands this ethos isn’t matched in practice, as many still use T-shirts for merchandise made in sweatshops. Grassroots campaign group No Sweat is taking a stand against this.

Punk, if anything, will always be remembered for its strong political alignment, with bands such as Crass, The Clash and Conflict all letting their fans know their strong left-wing ideology through their song lyrics. But for some bands, this ethos does not follow into practice. If you’ve ever been to a concert in any genre, you will know that there is always a merchandise table, either ran by the bands or groupies. The merchandise table will have t-shirts, patches, hoodies and much more, all usually for a reasonable price, but as the artists you love talk about boycotting products from oppressive regimes, veganism, and various other human rights issues, there is always something missing.

Where do their t shirts come from? Band T-shirts are one of the most popular forms of merchandise and due to the demand from fans, this leads bands and artists to go for the cheapest options when looking to print t-shirts. Sometimes the cheapest option often ends up being the least ethical, something that doesn’t fit in with the ideology and ethos of various punk bands.

According to global poverty charity War on Want, there are more than 4,800 garment factories in Bangladesh, which employ 3.5 million people producing cheap clothes under horrible working conditions for major UK and international brands. Women account for 85% of the garment workers in Bangladesh, and are extremely vulnerable to discrimination and abuse within these sweatshops. Clearly the poverty and unethical conditions of sweatshops are not something that fit in with the ethos of left-wing artists and bands, but how can this change?

I met Jay Kerr from Punk Ethics to discuss his work with anti-sweatshop campaign group No Sweat, and discuss how they have been supporting former sweatshop workers and helping provide artists and bands with ethical merchandise.

“No Sweat is a grassroots campaign group that first emerged in the late 90s to protest against the exploitation of workers in developing countries by large clothing brands such as Nike and Gap. It was inspired by the United Students Against Sweatshops campaign in the US that really kick started the movement on college campuses, as large brands like Nike would often be involved in sponsorship and provide branded college clothing that was made by workers in countries like China and Indonesia, where workers were working long hours, in dangerous conditions, for a wage that wasn’t enough to live on. When people realised that this was common practice throughout the garment industry and all the big brands were buying clothes from the same factories, that is when the protesting began and No Sweat was formed.”

“Over the past 20 years we have done a lot of picketing outside flagship stores in central London; in 2001 we joined the GMB union in hunting sweatshops in the east end of London, and discovered small Victorian workshops employing undocumented workers on less than the minimum wage to make clothes for Topshop. We organised speaking tours of striking workers from countries around the world, and organised fundraising events to help fund garment workers unions and associations fighting for workers’ rights on the front line.”

“A lot of these concerts were punk gigs, mainly as I was one of the organisers and was involved in the punk scene. Our first punk benefit was in a pub in Tottenham with Active Slaughter and Left for Dead. Over the years we have done a whole bunch of gigs with different bands, including The Skints in their early days.”

It is clear to see why Jay decided to make these fundraising events punk gigs, as punk music has always had strong left-wing political connotations and has always been strongly associated with political fundraising. Sadly, despite punk’s ethical and left-wing beliefs, the merchandise sold by punk bands does not reflect this.

Most bands make most of their profits through merchandise sales such as patches, T-shirts, and hoodies, but the main providers for these T-shirts, companies such as Gildan and Fruit of the Loom, use cheap labour from places such as Bangladesh and the Dominican Republic where child workers are widely used. According to the International Labour Organization, worldwide 218 million children are in employment, of them over 152 million are aged between 5 and 11. With most of these children not enrolled in school and receiving no formal education, and with masses of these children working in unacceptable conditions within sweatshops, clearly this is something that doesn’t ft in with the ethos of most bands.

When most musicians require merchandise to provide them a solid source of income, it is hard to find someone to provide merchandise at a reasonable price which is also ethical. This is something that Jay, along with No Sweat and Punk Ethics, felt like needed to change.

“In 2016 we started thinking about the growth of ‘ethical fashion’ in recent years, and its focus on the environment. we saw that a lot of ‘ethical’ clothing brands, particularly T-shirt-focused brands, lacked any rigorous workers rights policy. So, we decided to start a new project selling our own brand of T-shirt made in workers co-ops run by ex-sweatshops workers, and use the profits to fund garment workers unions as we had done in the past with the benefit gigs. This is where the connection with Punk Ethics comes in.”

“Punk Ethics was set up as vehicle for doing benefit gigs and other progressive stuff in the punk scene.  When I started the T-shirt project with No Sweat it led to conversations about the T-shirts a lot of punk bands use for their merch. We discovered that a lot of bands use major commercial companies that have a long history of sweatshop exploitation. Bands will sing about social justice in their music, but not give much thought to the exploitation going into the T-shirts they are selling with their logo on. At some point it just became logical to bring No Sweat and Punk Ethics together, and that is when the Punks Against Sweatshops campaign was born.”

The co-op that No Sweat sources T-shirts from is one in Bangladesh called Oporajeo, set up after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, where a large commercial building in Bangladesh that housed a number of garment factories collapsed killing over a thousand people. It was a huge tragedy. Some of the survivors came together with others to form their own garment factory and run it as a co-op, in an ethical way, ensuring the workers are supported both through decent hours, wages and conditions, but also with medical care following injures and mental health issues after the collapse.

As Jay has discussed with me, the human rights abuses surrounding sweatshops such as the Rana Plaza disaster distinctly show us how the unethical nature of sweatshops is not compatible with the ethos of many punk bands. According to anti-poverty charity War on Want, these Bangladeshi factory workers earn about £25 a month (3,000 taka), and this is still less than a living wage which is calculated to be around £45 a month (5,000 taka).

With all these unethical practices surrounding cheap merchandise and sweatshops, Punk Ethics and No Sweat felt like the best way to get their message out about these issues besides than just doing fundraising gigs was to also put out a campaign video featuring some of the biggest names in punk and beyond, such as Jello Biafra from legendary US punk band Dead Kennedys and even legendary British singer songwriter Billy Bragg.

“The Punks Against Sweatshops film came about through a conversation in the Punk Ethics collective, looking at how we can get the message across to punks that we need to start looking at where our T-shirts come from. We had done a few films on previous projects, It seemed a logical next step to make a film about sweatshops.”

The impact has been massive, particularly on Facebook where the reach was about 30,000 people with over 15,000 people watching the film in its entirety. This led to some support from some unexpected quarters, including the punks behind Rebellion Festival and the legendary 100 Club who are helping us organise a Punks Against Sweatshops gig next summer.”

The work No Sweat and Punk Ethics have done supporting former sweatshop workers and providing ethical merchandise for bands in the United Kingdom is a perfect example of how the politics of unity and liberation in the punk scene can be used to help many causes worldwide. Sweatshops are renowned for being unethical, so to be able to have an alternative option for merchandise is wonderful, and hopefully we see more bands signing up to get their merchandise through No Sweat very soon. Punk Ethics and No Sweat’s next fundraiser will be at the legendary 100 Club on June the 6^th, featuring punk legend Steve ignorant from Crass, Oi Polloi, and more.